Super Weapons

Our history has been one of inventing ever more devastating and unstoppable weapons, and yet they may pale in comparison to those made to wreck whole galaxies or tear asunder reality itself.
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/i...
Watch my exclusive video on Colonizing Binary Stars: nebula.tv/vide...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @isaacarthursfia
Visit our Website: www.isaacarthur...
Join Nebula: go.nebula.tv/i...
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur
Support us on Subscribestar: www.subscribes...
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord
Credits:
Super Weapons
Episode 390a, April 16, 2023
Produced, Written & Narrated by:
Isaac Arthur
Editors:
Briana Brownell
David McFarlane
Graphics by:
Darth Biomech
Jeremy Jozwik
Ken York
LegionTech Studios
Udo Schroeter
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.c...

[@ThirdCydonian]

The first rule of warfare: make sure quality control double checks your super weapon for pesky little exhaust ports leading straight to the reactor.

[@jimmywrangles]

At least make the exhaust port smaller than a Womp Rat.

[@AFMR0420]

It was never a bug, it was a feature. Just in case you lost control of your super weapon, make it easily disarmable.

[@mariovwcardoso5970]

Underrated comment

[@realmcafee]

you all underestimate how little this exhausting vent is but a few grids along the way would have been a cheap method

[@nimbusnation9584]

😂😂😂😂 Bloody good one mate 😂😂😂

[@fencserx9423]

This channel is like an old friend you love. It doesn’t matter if you don’t check in for awhile, when you see them, they’ll make your day

[@djschultz1970]

Make your day. Or try to utterly destroy your entire multiverse timeline with a temporal doomsday weapon!

[@cannonfodder4376]

Ah my monthly Sci-Fi Sunday episode and a side of First Rule of Warfare. 22:29 "Afterall a simple stone arrowhead teleported into your supreme leaders head works wonders for changing his mind." 😂😂😂 Informative as always Isaac.

[@Deridus]

Thank you for the time stamp! Once again, he drops some serious gems.

[@DogFoxHybrid]

Since we're talking advanced technology, what's to say the Supreme Leader isn't some posthuman entity made of nano machines that'd simply expell the arrowhead and repair its head in seconds like a T1000?

[@singletona082]

@@DogFoxHybrid That may be why it's stone. This was essentially a warning shot. 'That time it was a simple piece of flint. Next time it might be a disassembly virus, or an EMP generator that affects an area roughly the size of a basketball, or the arrowhead is made of anti-matter. So do please return to the negociation table. We dislike being this dramatic about making our point.'

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

Ah, another reminder of the power of teleportation.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

@@DogFoxHybrid Or a being who doesn't even care that one of his 10 quintillion bodies was killed.

[@jakec9522]

"There's no such thing as overkill." "If brute force isn't working, you're not using enough of it." Words to live by, Mr. Arthur. 😊

[@peterallen5575]

I had a kinda horrifying idea for a dark energy bomb, which would suddenly accelerate Hubble expansion in a volume by many orders of magnitude, disintegrating all matter within its radius.

[@virutech32]

A scaled back version might be able to isolate dangerous entities without killing them. It's nice to have a range of options rather than just kill everyone. It's not very useful as an actual weapon of war if everyone knows u can't use it without committing suicide(works fine as a deterrent). cool concept though as far as stupendously overkill superweapons go

[@thek2despot426]

Basically a Shatterbomb from Orion's Arm.

[@thegooddoctor2009]

"Listen I'm not a genocidal maniac, I just need to eliminate a few pops to cut down on lag" Every late game Stellaris player

[@C0wsmacker]

Even my beefy CPU can only allow so much coexistence, and still absolutely no xenophilia

[@bad_covfefe]

-Thanos, basically

[@exginto8053]

*machine god plays in background*

[@bitbucketcynic]

[aetherophasic engine intensifies]

[@killman369547]

*Revs up the stellar systemcraft*

[@bitbucketcynic]

Stellaris has a doomsday device that causes every star in the galaxy to simultaneously go supernova. Activating it instantly wins the game for you. Everyone else will try very hard to stop you.

[@AFMR0420]

Way before stellaris, Spaceward Ho! Has an armageddon feature that the player can choose to set off that destroys half the stars in the galaxy. No one can stop you from using it. If you don’t like the results or even survive you can use it again and again until you are no more.

[@AtlasReburdened]

Isn't this featured in one of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy sequels?

[@barryon8706]

Stellaris sounds like it has a very broad definition of winning. 😀

[@avi8aviate]

@@barryon8706 That's just one of the ways you can win in Stellaris. In this case, it's the ending if you become the crisis.

[@andyf4292]

ah the Kriket device

[@jamesamos6565]

Finally, a video explaining how Ican purge the unclean.

[@jessebullard7880]

BURN THE HERETIC, KILL THE MUTANT, PURGE THE UNCLEAN!!- some new astartes getting pumped for training exercises

[@Naomi.Robertson]

A new ironic series Sunday Super Weapons.

[@nyrdybyrd1702]

Please pardon my pressing but in what way would such be "ironic"?

[@AFMR0420]

Can we get an episode about 1000 decibel sound destroying reality?

[@overdoseproductions9011]

Domingo armas de superior

[@yourbuddyunit]

Ironic or not, I think I may need that in my life. Sounds fkn great I'm in!

[@radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9]

@@nyrdybyrd1702 everything

[@patroclusilliad233]

Turning off EM forces holding matter together, is what Davros tried to do with his reality bomb. As a super weapon it reallly illustrates a lot of your points, because they had to get a 'planet engine' using several specific worlds plucked form time and space, so their gravity fields create an energy source to power the whole damn thing. There's an idea, out of the box sources of energy.

[@bryfunkenstein]

It's funny that you have mentioned gundam before on your space habitat videos....but you didn't mention the fact that one of the biggest atrocities in the series was one side of the war dropping an O'Neil cylinder on earth and craving a very big crater where Sydney Australia was along with a lot of other damage. In UC gundam they stayed dropping colonies with varied effects

[@boobah5643]

It's one of the series trademarks. Just about every iteration has a special, unique Gundam for the pilot protagonist, a rival with a mask (initially) and a red robot, and some ungodly large space structure thrown at the planet.

[@TARDISES]

And then there's Gundam X, where the *series backstory* features hundreds of colonies getting dropped, to the point that society basically collapsed.

[@gabrote42]

It's the archetypal Colony Drop example

[@kigas24]

Colony drops are a big trope in Mobile Suit Gundam as well. Probably the most famous franchise to use it, surprised to not see it here.

[@jamescarlson4605]

The Goths from The Expanse are a good example of what can happen when a civilization taps another universe for power. Good episode!

[@alienhoboszombies]

And a good example of a unconventional super weapon *(SPOILERS)* since their attacks consisted of turning off/disrupting consciousness for a localized space, not blowing anything up

[@SpecialEDy]

Happy G-Type Main-Sequence Star Day! If you have your finger over the button of a Super Weapon, I hope you can hold off long enough to grab a snack, sit down, and enjoy this video!

[@SenorGato237]

In the Wing Commander series, the Kilrathi (the baddies) developed a super weapon ship that would increase the gravity constant on a target planet for a partial second.

[@fsmoura]

16:37 _". . . Skinny Black Metal Mega-Bullet"_ good name for a band! \m/

[@achtsekundenfurz7876]

USSC (United Spacefaring Species Council) member: "There are many ways to measure how advanced a species is: their architecture, art, philosophy, technology, weapons..." Somebody in the audience: "Weapons? Surely, nobody would concentrate all their efforts on advancing those..." Human just behind him: "And that's where you're wrong, buddy."

[@harbl99]

"I'm voting against activation of both _Project Streetlights_ and _Project Neighborhood_ . Planet crackers and nova weapons, fine; but weaponizing Sesame Street _and_ Mr Rogers is just beyond the pale!" -- from the _Behold Humanity_ series

[@piotrd.4850]

Some crazy ideas: 1. piece of 'neutronium' extracted from neutron star and close to 'c' - to slow down it's natural detonation in relation to target 2. again small blackhole of precisely calculated mass and speed so it does 'airburst' of hawking radiation above hostile planet 3. fling brown dwarf to destabilize orbits and catapult target planet as rouge 4. aim quasar jet onto something 5. I loved Starcarrier ur-Shaddar approach: fling star huge star through Black Rosette - spacetime gateway created from collapsed 6 blue supergiants 6. 18:40 - nah, it was also used in Stargate ( improvised ), Andromeda ( Nova bombs - using dark energy to temporarily negate gravity within star ) and to extend Galactic Corps ( small starship called Trigger though the star under warp drive ) 7. anything that messes with Higgs field - dictates mass, mass dictates chemistry -> express option to turn everything to green goo; or strong nuclear force

[@srilemobitelsrile8809]

2. They had "black hole bullet" in Andromeda series

[@wk8219]

Every time you say, “Send in the murder bots“ I hear it in my head to the tune of song Send in the Clowns. Which means I picture the sad ironic twist at the end of the song, “Send in the murder bots… They’re already here“ sung by one lonely remaining murder bot from the last invasion.

[@davidkleinman5002]

No tech yet can beat a real human mind. Nothing more devious or deceptive.

[@thentil]

Man what a plethora of ways to destroy everything. 😮😮

[@Datan0de]

Love that you referenced "The Gods Themselves" the moment I thought of it applying to what you were saying about harnessing other universes for energy.

[@kevinlane1219]

I would like to type on behalf of Ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (played by Peter Bull) from the movie, Dr. Strangelove. He responded to the question with "It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises."

[@tomasavendanozacarias5205]

interesting how you mentioned the concept of colony dropping but you didnt mention moble suit gundam, one of the first (and probably the most well known) cases of colony drops in popular media.

[@hovant6666]

18:34 Also, 'Look to Windward' by the late Iain M. Banks, in which the events of the plotline lead up to a memorial of the Culture supernova-ing an Idiran star

[@lvl10cooking]

Strange Matter bombs and False/True vacuum bombs are terrifying.

[@SuperShadowKinTwitch]

Captain, we killed all our enemies. Not enough. Go back in time and kill them again.

[@timogul]

I would think that if you are powering a volley of missiles using a laser, and you want them to all hit at slightly different times, the most efficient way to do that would be to stack them all together in a bundle, then accelerate that bundle all to the minimum speed you want one of them to be, and then that one would detach from the front of the pack and move itself just slightly out of the way, while the beam pushes the rest a bit faster, and then the second one splits off, and so on, until only one is left accelerating.

[@Obiwan7100]

Palpatine has entered in the chat.

[@markomalmi7989]

I just started the episode but can already tell it's going to be a.. banger.

[@aserta]

Everyone forgets Stargate. A solar system here and there, doomed a few planets to slow death by black hole...

[@armandoperez4535]

Dual vector foil from Three Body is the most terrifying for me

[@jennyanydots2389]

The Thom Brady probem is far more terrifying Amanda. Maybe if you weren't out there chugging dong all night you'd know that Amanda.

[@NaatClark]

@@jennyanydots2389 Who's this Thom fella? Were you too busy chugging dong all night to use the correct spelling Jenny?

[@AleksandrPodyachev]

Can a nuke be powerful enough to start a nitrogen-nitrogen fusion reaction with the nitrogen in the atmosphere?

[@isuckatusernames4297]

iirc that was the original worry of the ppl that made the first nuke. so safe to say, not happening

[@flashraylaser157]

@@isuckatusernames4297 Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and many other scientists were incredibly worried about it. Their calculations suggested that it was virtually impossible but there was still serious fear because it would be the end of humanity if they were wrong. If I recall, the most terrifying part is that it later turned out there were, indeed, some slight errors in the initial calculations, just luckily not any that led to doom.

[@rmeddy]

I thought you would've mentioned that episode of SG-1 where Sam supernova;d a star with the gate sent to an adress with the blackhole. Also the dimensional weapons in the Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past

[@petermcconnell9925]

I love that every rule of warfare is the "1st rule of warfare."

[@WolfeSaber9933]

For the asteroid attack, in the Expanse Macro used stealth composites and complex orbital paths to attack Earth.

[@bitharne]

In the books (a MUCH better version of the attack) he used Tungsten Rods in, exactly, the way Isaac described at about 15/16 minutes in. It also killed billions not just a few million like the show 🙄

[@WolfeSaber9933]

@@bitharne Where the rods coated with stealth composites? I haven't read the book, but how did Marco get the rods? You need to machine them, especially since they were made of tungsten. Besides, how did Earth defend itself from such an attack to even remotely survive?

[@WarGiver]

In the anime Series Gundam X it takes place AFTER an O'Neil Cylinder was dropped on the planet, and in Gundam SEED Destiny a chunk of Space Colony' well wreckage crashed into Earth, it was destroyed on the way down but there was still massive destruction. While the Sci-Fi elements are a tad leaning towards the fantastic (Given giant combat human piloted Robots) it still is within the subject, Gundam Wing has the space colony (technically a warship but called a colony to hide its purpose) with a giant super weapon, and in Gundam Seed it has a laser weapon that converts all the energy in a super nuke into a gamma ray beam. Nukes are actually a common weapon in many of the Gundam series do bigger weapons are often the replacement for MAD weapons instead Gundam SEED Nukes overuse is a major plot point. In Gundam SEED they actually consider genetic viruses to kill genetically engineered people.

[@Reddotzebra]

The super weapon that uses a nuke to fire a gamma beam is basically an upgraded version of the bomb-pumped X-ray laser concept.

[@Reddotzebra]

It's been many years since I read the Dresden Files but wasn't it an isolated mega mansion full of vampires that he pulled the satellite down on? And yes, that was done by a single spellcaster, again showcasing that the "killing curse" style spells are woefully unimaginative. The guy in question was powerful enough to do a satellite drop with just their universe's version of Accio.

[@barryon8706]

It was a mansion or fortress or such, but there were humans killed, with in-series blowback due to the rules about killing humans with magic.

[@isaacbourdeau3167]

The Spitting Cobra in House of Suns was a good way of having an ftl like technology without violating causality

[@chrisyoung9653]

cant get enough of this mas videos

[@samiam4544]

Can you give a full count of the number of first rules of warfare?

[@BriarLeaf00]

1:30 that armored dude is strokin that gun like the sun's about to go supernova.

[@norielgames4765]

"Teleporting an arrow to your supreme leader's brain works wonders to change their mind." - Isaac Arthur, 2023

[@norielgames4765]

Simply beautiful

[@FreedomisSuccess]

Thank you for your hard work issac ❤

[@leerv.]

22:29 "a simple stone arrowhead teleported into your supreme leader’s head works wonders for changing his mind." Isaac, your dark dad humor was definitely at form here!

[@sixtenwidlund4258]

This is going to be fun!

[@bryanshoemaker6120]

Everytime I think about Nanobots used for a weapon I imagine entire solar system turned into paper clips. Some paper clips as big as the width of Earth. Others the size of cars.

[@jakekidd6431]

Rifts RPG games breaks this stereotype. The weakest pistols are on par with damage of an RPG 7 to anti-Tank weapon. Without the explosion, of course.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Rifts was my first tabletop rpg experience, I still have a bunch of old 90s era manuals and rule books :)

[@zeekfromthecreek]

I hope you haven't convinced anyone that we shouldn't build O'Neil Cylinders because some fool might drop one on us.

[@virutech32]

well it's not like we need to build them in LEO or anything

[@darianstjohn5779]

Another epic video, perfect addition to a good Sunday afternoon

[@robertwahlstrom]

Feels like you could create some very interesting weapons if you could create an antimater wave or a wave that changes the rules of nature in similar way.

[@donutrock2132]

I enjoyed this video. Great and good.

[@usun_current5786]

Soviets did build a doomsday device, system called Perimeter. It's still operational in Russia. It's an automatic nuclear response system. Soviets never told anybody for a very good reason, it wasn't designed to deter NATO. It was designed to deter hotheads in own government by ensuring no matter what, there will be retaliation, even beyond the grave.

[@jkfecke]

Death bots are easy. Just keep sending soldiers at them until they hit their preset kill limit.

[@virutech32]

why would you give them a preset kill limit. That's dumb and also it's very difficult to confirm kills on a battlefield. Even more difficult on a battlefield with transhumans. Anyways u dont put a kill limit. u tell them to keep firing until the enemy is well & truly dead. Also robots are gunna be cheaper & faster to replace than humans whhile having a far higher K/D ratio

[@martinleopard193]

Stargate has some nice uses supernovae to blow up stuff. Also crushing planets into black holes. Great video!

[@quantumfoam539]

First Rule of Warfare: Never die first.

[@jamesamos6565]

James Bond title confirmed.

[@TheGmodkilla]

Talking about sci-fi and the lack of rocket launchers immediately made me think of Stargate SG1 when they just used a stinger to blow a spacefighter out of the sky.

[@MrQuantumInc]

Weapons of mass destruction that permanently change the laws of physics is a running theme in the "Earth's Remebrance" trilogy (AKA The Three Body Problem).

[@complex314i]

I really like that in Babylon 5 the guns are weaker than modern ones for the express purpose being able to fire it on a ship or station without making a hole in the hull.

[@arhumzia4087]

I would love to see a video about what we can achieve with our current level of tech in space.

[@zarni66]

Exactly what we are doing now with the current technology I would imagine.

[@SeminarChauffeur]

What would it take to be able to lob a full-sized neutron star at an enemy planet or star system?

[@virutech32]

Really depends on how fast you want to throw the thing, but keeping "plausibility" in mind accelerating a 1.4 solar mass netron star to 10% of light speed would require no less, & probably a whole lot more, than 1.262×10^45 J. That is 104.4 BILLION YEARS OF TOTAL SOLAR OUTPUT. There are stars with over a million times the sun's luminosity & one of those could do it in in a little under 104k years(not actually since there's no way ur getting 100% conversion to kinetic energy which is what i calculated).

[@SeminarChauffeur]

​@@virutech32 Such high speeds won't be needed if a sturdy enough wormhole (or as I'd like to call it, a space-time continuum gun barrel) could be opened and propped up.

[@LordZontar]

Tsar Bomba actually detonated with a measured yield of 57MT. Prototype for a 100MT model, the Soviets decided in the end not to proceed with it, even though a powerful enough rocket, the UR-500 (which eventually became the Proton satellite launcher) was being developed for it, because it was far more wasteful of nuclear material that could be better employed in fueling lots of 5MT or smaller devices, and also because there was no tactical value in a bomb powerful enough to make the rubble bounce 40 miles instead of only 10.

[@lorenzmmehlo]

novasparking is the correct term for artificial supernova tactics

[@submarine6410]

Thanks!

[@vladimirlenin843]

The best superweapon is the portable one. Why use solar death ray when you can kill with super precised needle at mach 10

[@brownwhale5518]

The only way to win is not to play.

[@virutech32]

Unfortunately participation is mandatory

[@xoso599]

God damn lava people!

[@IFRYRCE]

11:50 Certified Zeon Moment

[@cascadianrangers728]

Some prototypes are so simple or the principles so well known that testing one would be a waste: gun type fission bombs being an example, they imploded a core at Trinity but they had such faith the gun type bombs would work they dropped on on Hiroshima and then another on Nagasaki, no testing needed

[@PilatesGuy1]

👍👍Fun video-thanks. For relativistic missiles, I recommend "The Killing Star' by Charles Pellegrino (1995). An oldie but a goodie. Of course, destruction of your planet by relativistic missiles never really gets old. Just started reading it for the 2nd time. As you implied, Isaac, we never saw them coming.

[@sarcasmo57]

It's all pretty scary.

[@RavishingSailor]

Yet another amazing video. Pure quality

[@purcedure]

@All - Destroying things comes almost natural with technology, however creation is still harder and worth more in the end.

[@mattstorm360]

The gods gave us fire... but blowing stuff up? That was our idea!

[@peternordgren]

Early on you mention reducing aggression - reminds me of _The Screwfly Solution_ by James Tiptree Jr. except the other way around.

[@bryancampbell9622]

The display image looks remarkably like the Xindi weapon used on Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode Twilight, one of my favorites.

[@jennyanydots2389]

Wasn't that the episode taken off the air over one of that series' dog gRaping scenes?

[@seagie382]

5:00 wouldn't that be useful for bunker busting, say if the Russians wanted to use 3 ground strikes to "probably" destroy Cheyenne mountain, or 3 50mt strikes to "definitely" completely eliminate Cheyenne mountain?

[@BI-11y_TheStormTrooper]

In Warhammer abbadon chucked a Blackstone fortress at cadia which broke the planet. Cadia broke before the guard !

[@TheZankoh]

Super weapons are cool, when is the episode about Super Duper Weapons coming out?

[@Spacewolf01]

In the Stargate movie Kurt Russel teleported an atom bomb into Ra's lounge room.

[@garrygriggs1888]

Why invest time to develop the weapons to destroy your enemy when you can trick them into investing in developing the tech to destroy themselves. No super weapons required.

[@virutech32]

Because that implies intellectual or technological superiority over your enemy. Far less effective against peers on equal technological, intellectual, & educational footing

[@anthonycoleman6213]

Has he ever made a video on stopping in space after achieving FTL? I have seen many videos about trying to achieve the ultimate speed limit, but I haven't seen anything about stopping once you reach your destination.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Only in passing, same as I'll mention the energy bills of many FTL concepts, it might be an interesting topic

[@GLOGEL]

"YOU WILL WITNESS OUR CHAMPION BUT YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ME THAT NO ONE SHOULD LIE" THE GOOGOL HERO SAID I WILL BE RIDING THE STORM LIKE A HERO AND+AMEN

[@Edramon53]

Is the Bobiverse example - crushing the core of a star between two large, fast moving objects impacting from opposite directions (a large moon and small planet in their case, accelerated for decades from another solar system) - workable? First time I read it I tried to find out and most discussion I found thought it wouldn't work.

[@virutech32]

I'm not sure how that wouldn't work. Even if it didn't set off a niva if u slam them together fast enough u might outright make a black hole. Now you've got an active quasar at point blank which i figure would be even worse

[@Kerplakistandan]

I love you man!

[@VianniOG]

Thanks Issac

[@pauldickinson3961]

8:09 Don't mind me, just find this bit funny out of context

[@SeattleShelby]

Halo drive? How about a Halo Bomb. Imagine a moon-sized object traveling at 0.9 c.

[@SarevokRegor]

Fermi paradox solution, Dyson dilemma exists because of intergalactic Non-proliferation treaty.

[@andyf4292]

the big asteroid is how i'd deal with Pandora

[@brjr2001]

I realized I was a true nerd when I got upset to the point to comment that Worf didn’t use a suns ejection to destroy a ship. That was his brother Kurn (played by the legendary Tony Todd)

[@grapy83]

amazing episode! Loved it

[@ronaldbender7226]

Please tell me that you got these Rules of Warfare from Schlock Mercenary!

[@jebadayakillers4356]

isaac you forgot the stargate sg-1 episode where they blownup a star to destroy a enemy fleet

[@canberradogfarts]

Finally

[@Because.Brandon.Photography]

Heck yes love Mr. Author

[@davidvavra9113]

No mention of Smith's Lensmen or Clarke's Superiority?

[@Kenadian2006]

Isaac how could you do colony drops and not bring up Gundam?

[@ASpaceOstrich]

The Neutronium Alchemist was an interesting superweapon. Convert a star into neutronium.

[@devinnie7572]

Uploaded 18 seconds ago with 6 likes. Nice.